Rural Comms

I may have mentioned that we have no cell signal and no phone lines at Mariposa. Obviously our options for communications are limited. Across the course of the last 6 months or so, our neighbors Dan and Mark have been instrumental in getting a radio network up and running.

Most of us are licensed through the FCC as General Mobile Radio Service operators. As such we are limited in the power of our equipment, the height of our antennas, and the frequencies that we use. The Mariposa call sign is WQWS907. We currently use 3 radios; a Maxon mobile unit as our base radio, an Icom handheld, and a Baofeng handheld. Dan did find us a great deal on an Icom mobile unit, which will live in the truck once it has been programmed.

Our antenna isn't particularly sophisticated, and is attached to our roof with a magnetic mount. It does give us pretty decent range though, allowing us to talk with pretty much any of the other Fence Lake residents who are in the network (most of whom live within 10 miles). We have talked to Dan on his mobile unit when he was on the road close to 30 miles away, but it was hit or miss depending on whether he was at the top of a hill or down in a hollow.

Speaking of hollows, our neighbor John lives in one. In order to reliably communicate, he bought an old 40 foot tower to mount his antenna on. On a calm morning before the roads had thawed, about 8 of us gathered at his house and got the beast upright. Now we can hit his repeater and all is well.

While we originally thought of the radio network as an emergency tool, we find it to be practical in a social fashion as well. It is nice to be able to get in touch with the neighbors.